TIP’s ‘Oliver!’ gets a family-friendly twist

J.B. George (left) as Fagin and Isabelle Stewart as Oliver rehearse a scene from Theatre in the Park’s production of “Oliver!” at New Salem State Historic Site in Petersburg. The play opens Friday.

J.B. George (left) as Fagin and Isabelle Stewart as Oliver rehearse a scene from Theatre in the Park’s production of “Oliver!” at New Salem State Historic Site in Petersburg. The play opens Friday.

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J.B. George (left) as Fagin and Isabelle Stewart as Oliver rehearse a scene from Theatre in the Park’s production of “Oliver!” at New Salem State Historic Site in Petersburg. The play opens Friday.

J.B. George (left) as Fagin and Isabelle Stewart as Oliver rehearse a scene from Theatre in the Park’s production of “Oliver!” at New Salem State Historic Site in Petersburg. The play opens Friday.

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TIP’s ‘Oliver!’ gets a family-friendly twist

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PETERSBURG — Charles Dickens’ Victorian-era novel “Oliver Twist” tells the tale of an orphan born into a workhouse and sold into an abusive apprenticeship before managing to escape and befriend a gang of juvenile pickpockets led by the old man Fagin.

“Oliver!” is Lionel Bart’s musical take on the Dickens story and follows a similar path, though director Mark Wheeler is hoping his version is a bit less bleak and a bit more family friendly.

The production opens Friday at Theatre in the Park at Lincoln’s New Salem State Historic Site.

“When the original came out, it was kind of dark,” Wheeler said of the musical. “I remember doing this show back in the ’80s myself. We’ve taken that tone and lightened it up a bit. It’s more of a family production.”

Lightening up a somewhat dark play about abused and impoverished children in Victorian England, perhaps surprisingly, wasn’t that hard, Wheeler said.

“The workhouse (warden), by virtue of his name, Mr. Bumble, it was always written that way,” Wheeler said, noting that one expects the character to be a bumbling fool.

“What we try to do is develop over-the-top characters, so kids of all ages can come and not get frightened by it,” he said.

While many might think an actor is limited in his choices to the ones already made by the script, that’s not really true. Any one actor can have multiple ways of portraying a particular character, he said.

“What we’ve allowed the actors to do is take it in their own spin,” he said.

The humor his cast has found in the show isn’t new, Wheeler said.

“It was already written that way,” he said. “It’s just how the actors (portray it) and make that character something relatable today.”

Wheeler, his cast and crew also have lightened up the play in other ways, without losing the heart of the story, he said.

“We looked at ways to freshen up the music,” he said. “Rearranged it, added steam whistles and deep tones. Sounds that weren’t in the original production.”

And rather than Victorian-era rags, the costumes — and set, for that matter — have a Victorian steampunk theme.

“It’s the clash of the Industrial era and the Victorian era,” Wheeler said. “The costuming reflects that, the set design reflects that. … It typically wouldn’t (be part) of the time Oliver was conceived, but it doesn’t really take away from the story at all. The music’s still the same, the story is still the same. There’s just a different type of costuming, clashes between Victorian and steampunk. … It’s a whimsical approach.”

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Theatre in the Park will stage “Oliver!” at 8 p.m. Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Aug. 9-11 at Lincoln’s New Salem State Historic Site in Petersburg.

Tickets, which are $15 for adults, $13 for seniors and $12 for children 12 and under, are available online at theatreinthepark.net or by calling 217-632-5440.

A preshow also will be presented at 7 p.m. nightly. Director Mark Wheeler will talk about the production during each preshow, which also will feature other entertainment. That schedule includes Manning and Lowder on Friday, Blessed Sacrament Youth Choir Jubilate on Saturday and Menard County Singers on Sunday. Next weekend’s preshow performers include Kris Olson on Aug. 9, Edward Donathan on Aug. 10 and Seraphim on Aug. 11.